Method of accelerating the conditioning of textiles after drying



May 6, 1952 Y E. vFIONEGGER METHOD OF ACCELERATING THE CONDITIONING OF TEXTILES AFTER DRYING Filed July 18, 1946 2 0 Q |V/////////1li/f//////7/, /////aLz///////,l

ffm/EMMA? fm1] QA/EGGER Patented May 6, 19,52

METHOD ACCELERATING THE CONDI- TIONING F TEXTILES AFTER DRYING Emil Honegger, Zurich, Switzerland, assignor-to Gesellschaft zur Forderung der Forschung anl der Eidg. Technischen Hochschule, Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, a firm of Switzerland Application July 18, 1946,* Serial No. 684,415 In Switzerland July 27, 1945 2 Claims.

Textiles which have been dried lafter undergoing Wet treatment much be subsequently conditioned. ,This is equally necessary whether the textiles concerned are to be subjected to a further manufacturing process or whether they are to be oiered for sale.

The usual method of conditioning textiles is to bring them into contact with correspondingly conditioned air until a state of equilibrium, is reached. As soon as this occurs the textiles in question have the required constant moisture content.

If the textiles which have to be conditioned are tightly packed or wound or in thick layers or bundles, as is the case with big cross-Wound bobbins, bales of cloth, large masses of iibre,etc., it often takes a very long time before the abovementioned state of equilibrium is attained. The simplest Way of drying and conditioning textiles is to dry them first of all in air with as low a moisture content as'possible and afterwards to store them in air of the prescribed moisture content. The drying process can be accelerated, for example, by forcing the air through the textiles concerned, this certainly accelerates the drying process, but the conditioning still takes a long time.

The object of the present invention is a method by which the time for conditioning textiles previously subjected to a drying process involving the use of compressed air can be reduced.

According to the invention this is done by only partially drying the textiles by means of a current of air owing in a given direction. The actual conditioning vis subsequently carried out by means of a current of air of a certain or predetermined moisture content (but below saturation) flowing in the opposite direction to the previously mentioned drying current. An effective method is to continue the drying process until there is only suicient moisture left to bring the whole bulk of textiles up to the prescribed moisture content. The point at which the drying process should stop and the conditioning should begin can be determined in advance by suitable calculations or by trial and error.

The process will now be described in' detail by reference to Figs. 1 to 6.

Figs. 1 to 3 illustrate the drying process as applied to spools.

Figs. 4 to 6 illustrate the drying process as applied to bulk textiles such as a mass of fibre, yarn in skeins, cloth etc.

From the example shown in Figs. 1 to 3 it will The compressed air can only find an outlet by traversing the textile mass with the result that the inner part thereof at 5 is dried rst. In Y'other Words the drying process advances from the inside towards the outside of the textile mass.

In Fig. 2 it will be seen that the portion of the textiles already dried has increased in size. Finally, in Fig. 3 the condition is shown which allows the process to be reversed in that conditioned air can. be introduced in the opposite direction. Only that portion of the textiles indicated by 6 has not been dried. Conditioned air is forced through the spool from the outside and drawn off through aperture 4. The change over from the drying to the conditioning process takes place when the moisture remaining in the outer layers of yarn is just sufficient to bring the moisture content of the whole quantity of yarn up to requirements. The air used for conditioning is of normal temperature and moisture content. This air becomes saturated on coming in contact with the outside layer of yarn, Which is still wet, and gives up moisture to the inner layers of yarn. which are dry. As the air itself is conditioned it does not remove any more moisture than necessary from the outer layers of yarn. In a relatively short time the air passing through the yarn brings about a uniform distribution of the prescribed moisture content throughout the whole of the yarn.

Figs. 4 to 6 illustrate the same procedure taking place in stacked yarn. As in the previous example, a stream of dry air 1 brings about a gradual drying of the textiles. The dry portion is indicated by 8 and the wet portion by 9.

Fig. 5 represents an intermediary stage in the drying process.

As soon as the Wet portion of the textiles has been reduced till it occupies the space indicated by I I in Fig. 6, the stream ofl conditioned air I0 is introduced in the opposite direction.

The method described above has advantages over other methods in that the time required for drying and conditioning the textiles is considerably reduced. Moreover, the method results in an absolutely uniform distribution of the moisture content throughout the whole mass of yarn such as could hardly be obtained hitherto.

The practical application of the method presents no particular diculty, provided that care is taken to ensure that bundles or packs produced in series for conditioning treatment possesses exactly the same properties. When drying with air of predetermined properties the right moment for reversing the direction of ow can be determined as previously stated, by calculation as well as by experiment.

I claim:

1. Process for conditioning textile material, comprising forcing a drying current of air under pressure through the body of a substantially thick mass of wet textile material in -a given direction, stopping the flow of drying air when said material contains a residual but non-uniformly distributed quantity of moisture corresponding approximately to the desired total moisture content of the mass of textile material when in conditioned form, and thereupon passing a current of air less than saturation moisture content through the material in the opposite direction to that of the air used for the drying step until said residual quantity of moisture is substantially uniformly distributed in the textile material by being carried by said second current of air from theregion of one surface of said material to the opposite surface.

2. Process according to claim 1, wherein the textile material comprises yarn wound in the form of a hollow spool. and wherein the drying current of air is introduced into the interior of the spool and caused to flow outwardly through the wound yarn, and wherein the second current of air is caused to flow from the outside to the hollow interior of the spool from which it is withdrawn.

EMIL HONEGGER.

REFERENCES CITED The following'references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,393,086 Carrier Oct. 11, 1921 1,534,499 Braemer Apr. 21, 1925 1,540,926 Brandwood June 9, 1925 1,629,167 Krantz 1 May 17. v192'7 1,917,513 Ellssner J uly 11, `1933 1,997,380 Hornbuckle Apr. 9, 1935 2,444,588 `Bassinger et al July 6, 1948 

